Helping directors make the cut
A perennially angry boss. An unsatisfying job. A week of facing the wrath of both evils combined at full force. Joe Arputhan had no idea that the most dreadful week of his life would lead him to making one of the most life-altering decisions of his life. The 28-year-old co-founder of Student Filmer was surprised when his brother, Antony Arul called in with an idea that was sketchy, at best.
All he said was that it was an initiative to help aspiring filmmakers and Joe was on board in no time. That set the ball rolling for Student Filmer — which handholds aspiring filmmakers to make their films.
What started out as a digital magazine evolved into a first-of-its-kind filmmaking support-system when Vignesh Narayanasamy and Murali Kannan joined the team.
They phased out the magazine and brought out a blog written by aspiring filmmakers themselves.
All the doubts that they might have had went down the drain when the response to their blog grew overwhelmingly strong (more than 18k followers), within the first few days of its launch. That’s when they realized that independent filmmakers here are starved of information, a support system and mentorship, which is why many of them give up midway.
Which is what led Student Filmer to introducing the Production Program, that provides a filmmaker with all the help that they could possibly need — finance, finalizing scripts,casting, crew formation, post-production and finally, release. It does help that their parent Company is Lens Tiger, a Camera Rental company. So acquiring equipment is never really too much of an issue.
With 5 films done and 5 in the pipeline, Student Filmer hopes to be the cushion that filmmakers can fall back on, “Most of our audience is from Chennai and Coimbatore, though we have people from many parts of India reading our blog. Still, Student Filmer is in nascent stage. But it has got all the ingredients to make a difference,” he adds. Student Filmer has also launched a video platform that exclusively airs these films. “In my view, Independent filmmaking in India is at its nascent stage. But the system is evolving and we have to see how people are receptive to this. But one thing is for sure, Independent Films should find a new way for distributing its varied content,” says Joe.
While Studentfilmer’s blog does draw from occasional interactions with industry experts, some of the best posts feature lessons learned from the aspirants themselves.
Reach Out: www.studentfilmer.com